Populations considered for shoulder analysis are often composed of various ratios of men and women. It is consequently hypothesized that gender has no significant effect on the joint kinematic. However ... [more ▼]

Populations considered for shoulder analysis are often composed of various ratios of men and women. It is consequently hypothesized that gender has no significant effect on the joint kinematic. However the literature reports, for the shoulder, differences in the range of motion between genders. The specific influence of gender on the scapula-thoracic kinematics has not been studied yet. The dominant shoulder of two populations of men and women composed of 11 subjects each were evaluated in three dimensions for three distinct motions: flexion in the sagittal plane, abduction in the frontal plane and gleno-humeral internal/external rotation with the arm abducted at 90°. Posture, kinematics and range of motion were studied separately. For flexion and abduction and with regard to the scapular kinematic, external rotation were significantly larger for women than men. The differences were of at least 5° at 120° of humeral elevation. Upward rotations were identical. Women also showed larger average active humero-thoracic range of motion. The mean differences were of 13°, 7°, 12° and 5° for abduction, flexion, internal rotation and external rotation, respectively. No difference was observed between the scapular resting positions of both populations. The observed differences concerning both the scapular and humeral patterns would indicate that the shoulder behavior of men and women should not be expected to be similar. [less ▲]

in Proceeding of the IABSE Workshop - Safety, Robustness and Condition Assessments of Structures (2015, February)

The aim of this paper is to study a beam extracted from a frame and subjected to blast loading. The demand of ductility depends on six dimensionless parameters: two related to the blast loading, two ... [more ▼]

The aim of this paper is to study a beam extracted from a frame and subjected to blast loading. The demand of ductility depends on six dimensionless parameters: two related to the blast loading, two referring to the bending behaviour of the beam and two corresponding to the dynamic behaviour of the rest of the structure. We develop a full analytical procedure that provides the ductility demand as a function of these six dimensionless parameters. [less ▲]

An original signal processing algorithm is presented to automatically extract, on a stride-by-stride basis, four consecutive fundamental events of walking, heel strike (HS), toe strike (TS), heel-off (HO), and toe-off (TO), from wireless accelerometers applied to the right and left foot. First, the signals recorded from heel and toe three-axis accelerometers are segmented providing heel and toe flat phases. Then, the four gait events are defined from these flat phases. The accelerometer-based event identification was validated in seven healthy volunteers and a total of 247 trials against reference data provided by a force plate, a kinematic 3D analysis system, and video camera. HS, TS, HO, and TO were detected with a temporal accuracy ± precision of 1.3 ms ± 7.2 ms, ‒4.2 ms ± 10.9 ms, ‒3.7 ms ± 14.5 ms, and ‒1.8 ms ± 11.8 ms, respectively, with the associated 95% confidence intervals ranging from ‒6.3 ms to 2.2 ms. It is concluded that the developed accelerometer-based method can accurately and precisely detect HS, TS, HO, and TO, and could thus be used for the ambulatory monitoring of gait features computed from these events when measured concurrently in both feet. [less ▲]

In motion capture systems, markers are often seen by multiple cameras. All cameras do not measure the position of the markers with the same reliability because of environmental factors such as the ... [more ▼]

In motion capture systems, markers are often seen by multiple cameras. All cameras do not measure the position of the markers with the same reliability because of environmental factors such as the position of the marker in the field of view or the light intensity received by the cameras. Kalman filters offer a general framework to take the reliability of the various cameras into account and consequently improve the estimation of the marker position. The proposed process can be applied to both passive and active systems. Several reliability models of the cameras are compared for the Codamotion active system, which is considered as a specific illustration. The proposed method significantly reduces the noise in the signal, especially at long range distances. Therefore, it improves the confidence of the positions at the limits of the field of view. [less ▲]

in IEEE International Conference on 3D Imaging (IC3D) (2014, December 09)

A new signal processing algorithm is developed for quantifying heel strike (HS) and toe-off (TO) event times solely from measured heel and toe coordinates during overground walking. It is based on a rough ... [more ▼]

A new signal processing algorithm is developed for quantifying heel strike (HS) and toe-off (TO) event times solely from measured heel and toe coordinates during overground walking. It is based on a rough estimation of relevant local 3D position signals. An original piecewise linear fitting method is applied to these local signals to accurately identify HS and TO times without the need of using arbitrary experimental coefficients. We validated the proposed method with nine healthy subjects and a total of 322 trials. The extracted temporal gait events were compared to reference data obtained from a force plate. HS and TO times were identified with a temporal accuracy ± precision of 0.3 ms ± 7.1 ms, and –2.8 ms ± 7.2 ms in comparison with reference data defined with a force threshold of 10 N. This algorithm improves the accuracy of the HS and TO detection. Furthermore, it can be used to perform stride-by-stride analysis during overground walking with only recorded heel and toe coordinates. [less ▲]

Equivalent linearization consists in replacing a nonlinear system with an equivalent linear one whose parameters are tuned with regard to the minimization of a suitable function. In particular, the ... [more ▼]

Equivalent linearization consists in replacing a nonlinear system with an equivalent linear one whose parameters are tuned with regard to the minimization of a suitable function. In particular, the Gaussian equivalent linearization expresses the properties of an equivalent linear system in terms of the mean vector and the covariance matrix of the responses, which are the unknowns of the optimization problem in a spectral approach. Even though the system has been linearized, the resulting set of equations is nonlinear. The computational effort in this method pertains to the solution of a possibly large set of nonlinear algebraic equations involving integrals and inversions of full matrices. This work proposes to develop and apply an asymptotic expansion-based method to facilitate and to improve the statistical linearization for large nonlinear structures. The proposed developments demonstrate that for slightly to moderately coupled nonlinear systems, the equivalent linearization can be applied with an appropriate modal approach and eventually seen as a convergent series initiated with the stochastic response of a main decoupled linear system. With this method, the computational effort is attractively reduced, the conditioning of the set of nonlinear algebraic equations is improved and inversion of full transfer matrices and repeated integrations are avoided. The paper gives a formal description of the method and illustrates its implementation and performances with the computation of stationary responses of nonlinear structures subject to coherent random excitation fields. [less ▲]

in Landolfo, Raffaele; Mazzolani, Frederico (Eds.) Proceeding of the 7th European conference on steel and composite structures (Eurosteel 2014) (2014, September 10)

The paper studies the structural response of a beam subjected to a close-field local internal blast loading. In the literature, the pressure-impulse (p-I) diagram is commonly used to design elements or ... [more ▼]

The paper studies the structural response of a beam subjected to a close-field local internal blast loading. In the literature, the pressure-impulse (p-I) diagram is commonly used to design elements or structures for a given blast loading. The p-I diagram is a spectrum representing the level sets of damage or required ductility for a given structural system, nonlinear beam in this paper. This representation is much appreciated because a simple reading for the actual pressure p and impulse I of the considered load indicates the ductility demand of the structural system. Recent works of quasi-static behaviour have indicated the crucial need to account for the membrane effects taking place in the extreme loading of frame beams. This paper will thus extend the state-of-art features, establishing thus the p-I diagram for a beam including the lateral restraints offered by the rest of the structure, the development of non-linear membrane action and also, the M-N interaction that develops in the plastic hinges. [less ▲]

INTRODUCTION Serve in modern tennis game is an important offensive weapon for players (1-2). In kinematic analysis, serve is the most studied stroke of this game. The aim of our study was to compare the ... [more ▼]

INTRODUCTION Serve in modern tennis game is an important offensive weapon for players (1-2). In kinematic analysis, serve is the most studied stroke of this game. The aim of our study was to compare the performance of two specific populations: international players versus national players. In particular, racket speed at impact and accuracy of ball were assessed. METHODS A tennis court was reconstructed in a motion analysis laboratory. The position of the racket was evaluated in 3D at a frequency rate of 200 Hz. Tests were performed on 6 professional players (international level) and 9 non-professional players (national level). Each of them served 25 trials in direction of the “T” area of deuce diagonal. Two squares of 1m² and 2 m² respectively were delimited on the corner of the serve square. The instruction for both groups was to serve in the “T” area with the highest ball speed and minimal ball rotation (flat serve). RESULTS Although the forward speed of the racket at impact was identical between the two groups of players (International 36.35 ± 2.37 m/s and national 36.37 ± 2.90 m/s, p-value 0,991), the accuracy and consistency of serves on the target area is better for international players group (1m² area: International 33% ± 7% and national 14% ± 12%, p-value 0.0053; 2m² area (including 1m² area): International 71% ± 8% and national 54% ± 12%, p-value 0.0096; Out of zone: International 29% ± 8% and national 46% ± 12%, p-value 0.014). DISCUSSION High-velocity ball seems to be a key factor for serve performance (3). It is known that there is a relationship between racket speed and ball velocity (4). Both groups have high racket speed. However, international players serve with better accuracy and consistency than national players. We hypothesize that these differences are due to capacity of international players to adapt to a particular environment. Moreover, international players could give priority to consistency over velocity. We conclude that high-velocity serve is not a sufficient criterion to perform at international level; consistency and accuracy are two important factors to reach this level. [less ▲]

This paper proposes an algorithm for the numerical simulation of linear structural dynamics problems under unilateral elastic constraints, i.e., constraints with a linear force/displacement characteristic whenever active. The presented procedure relies on an event-driven strategy for the handling of the contact constraints, in combination with one-step schemes dedicated to the time integration of the second-order equations of motion. Efficiency of the procedure follows from the use of cubic Hermite interpolation to continuously extend the normal gap functions that reflect the openings of the contact interfaces. Robustness follows from the proper handling of complex numerical situations, e.g., numerical grazing or discontinuity sticking, through appropriate algorithm structure and numerical implementation. And, integration stability is guaranteed by the very nature of the algorithm and that of the one-step integration scheme. Following a detailed coverage of the integration procedure and the countermeasures to the expected numerical difficulties, three application examples are treated for illustration purposes. A MATLAB implementation of the procedure is provided online; download and usage information are given in the Appendix. [less ▲]

Tendon lesions are among the most frequent musculoskeletal pathologies. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is known to regulate angiogenesis. VEGF-111, a biologically active and proteolysis ... [more ▼]

Tendon lesions are among the most frequent musculoskeletal pathologies. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is known to regulate angiogenesis. VEGF-111, a biologically active and proteolysis-resistant splice variant of this family, was recently identified. This study aimed at evaluating whether VEGF-111 could have a therapeutic interest in tendon pathologies. Surgical section of one Achilles tendon of rats was performed before a local injection of either saline or VEGF-111. After 5, 15 and 30 days, the Achilles tendons of 10 rats of both groups were sampled and submitted to a biomechanical tensile test. The force necessary to induce tendon rupture was greater for tendons of the VEGF-111 group (p<0.05) while the section areas of the tendons were similar. The mechanical stress was similar at 5 and 15 days in the both groups but was improved for the VEGF-111 group at day 30 (p <0.001). No difference was observed in the mRNA expression of collagen III, tenomodulin and MMP-9. In conclusion, we observed that a local injection of VEGF-111 improves the early phases of the healing process of rat tendons after a surgical section. Further confirmatory experimentations are needed to consolidate our results. [less ▲]

Background: The contralateral shoulder is often used as a reference when evaluating a pathological shoulder. However literature provides contradictory results regarding the symmetry of the scapular ... [more ▼]

Background: The contralateral shoulder is often used as a reference when evaluating a pathological shoulder. However literature provides contradictory results regarding the symmetry of the scapular pattern in a healthy population. We assume that several factors including the gender and the type of motion may influence the scapula bilateral symmetry. Method: The dominant and non dominant shoulders of two populations of men and women composed of 11 subjects each were evaluated for three distinct motions: flexion in the sagittal plane, abduction in the frontal plane and gleno-humeral internal/external rotation with the arm abducted at 90°. Posture, kinematic and range of motion were studied separately. Results: Asymmetries are observed for motions performed in the frontal and sagittal plane but not for the internal/external rotation with the arm abducted at 90°. Multiplane asymmetries are observed for the male population, whereas asymmetries for the female one are mainly uniplanar. For both men and women, the scapula has a larger upward rotation on the dominant side. For men, a larger posterior tilt is also observed. The asymmetries mainly originate in the scapula kinematic and not in its original posture. Discussion: Even if the asymmetries are not large in terms of amplitude (inferior to 5°), one should be aware of their existence and the influence of the composition of the studied population when using the contralateral shoulder as a reference. [less ▲]